Jane

Jane is the unnamed girl who loses her virginity to Chico in the embedded story "Stud City," a work of fiction written by the adolescent Gordon Lachance. She appears almost entirely through Chico's perception: a willing but inexperienced partner whose emotional openness contrasts with Chico's defensive, performative toughness. Their encounter, set in the room that once belonged to Chico's dead brother Johnny, becomes a stage on which Chico acts out his grief, his rage at his stepmother Virginia, and his fragile sense of masculine identity.

Identity and Introduction

Jane is a tall girl, taller than Chico, and has to duck her head slightly when going through a bathroom door. She has black hair and winter-white skin, the color of cream; her breasts are firm, her belly perhaps a little too soft. Chico notices that one flaw—the soft belly—reminds him that "this isn't the movies." She wears a jumper that hides her too-soft stomach, and when she pushes a lock of hair behind her ear, Chico finds the gesture evocative and poignant. She lives in a packaged suburban home in Auburn, and Chico drives her there after their encounter. She asks if the woman in a family photograph on top of the TV is Chico's mother; he corrects her, saying it is his stepmother Virginia.

The Sexual Encounter and Its Aftermath

Jane and Chico have sex in his bedroom, which was formerly Johnny's room. She is a virgin—"cherry," as Chico puts it—and afterward she tells him, "Thank you for the most wonderful time of my life." During the act, Chico observes her body with clinical detachment: her eyes appear violet, the rainwater running down the window makes rippling patterns on her face, neck, and breasts, and she is "perfect in her moment." Afterward, she makes the bed, covering the bloodstained sheet, and Chico tells his stepmother Virginia, "The sheets are bloody. I broke her in." Jane leaves a handkerchief behind, which Virginia later uses as evidence to confront Chico.

Relationship with Chico

Jane is emotionally invested in Chico in a way he cannot reciprocate. She tells him "I love you, Chico," and he replies flatly, "That's right." When she asks if he loves her, he says offhandedly, "You bet!" and then, more seriously, "You were cherry." He insists they are "friends" and uses that word to control the dynamic, telling her to open her eyes because "We're friends, I said." After sex, when she cups a breast through her jumper, she pulls away, saying, "Don't. My father might see." Chico drives her home in his unreliable Buick, and she invites him in for cookies; he declines. He calls her "Janey-Jane" and asks if they are still friends; she says they are.

Narrative Role and Significance

Jane functions primarily as a mirror for Chico's psychological state. Her presence in Johnny's room forces Chico to confront his brother's death—he lies to her, telling her Johnny is in the Army, when in fact Johnny was killed in a racing accident. Her virginity gives Chico a sense of power and accomplishment, which he immediately weaponizes against Virginia. The handkerchief she leaves behind becomes a tool Virginia uses to expose Chico's transgression. Jane herself remains largely unknowable, a receptacle for Chico's projections and a witness to his grief. Her final appearance is in Chico's memory of her saying, "Come in and I'll give you cookies," a line that the adult Gordon Lachance, looking back on his own story, dismisses as the speech of "a simple receptacle."